Once Upon A Time...

I thought it fitting to briefly discuss Western movies in my first post. I've always been a big fan of Westerns, especially those with Clint Eastwood (and even a couple with John Wayne). My tastes have changed somewhat, but one of the best Westerns I've seen is Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time in the West. The film showcases all of this brilliant director's skills. As others have said, it's like the Dollars Trilogy (with The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly) was just a warm-up for this one. The music, cinematography, and acting are simply dynamic.

The opening scene at a train station is almost bereft of dialogue. Leone uses his actor's faces and his camera to develop the characters. Leone pioneered the use of extreme close-ups in movies, and he uses them frequently in this film in a rather artistic manner. Those more eloquent than myself have said that he essentially turn's the actor's face into scenery, like the large Monument Valley landscapes he also features in this film.

The score is epic, and the movie has the same slower pace of most epics. It's not like The Searchers, nor really like other classic Westerns. It's more a story about the demise of the wild west with the coming of the railroad, told through the lives of several people who live on both sides of the coming era. The main characters, of course, are the old guard - there's no room for them in the modern society brought by rail connections. Each of the three main male characters has his own muscial theme, much as in Peter and the Wolf. This could have been cheesy, but Leone makes it work. The tune played by Charles Bronson's Harmonica is etched in my mind along with other great film tunes.

Peter Fonda excels as Frank, the main villain. That's right: Peter Fonda plays the bad guy for the only time in his career, and he does it as well as anyone. Jason Robards as Cheyenne is superb. Charles Bronson, at his stoic best, makes this film work, though. He fits Harmonica to a T. The only other actor that could have played this role was Eastwood himself, the star of Leone's other three big Westerns. Harmonica is the Nameless character, but this time he has a bit of a past, and he's out for revenge. Only too fitting that Bronson (of Death Wish fame) should play him, then.

The movie is over-the-top. Westerns need to be. Yes, they may seem overdrawn and melodramatic to some people, but this is a story that's bigger than the characters or even the plot. All in all, it achieves things that few films do. It's currently rated #21 all-time at imdb.com.
Still, I wouldn't recommend this film for everyone. I even gave away my copy of the film. One reason I gave it up is that it isn't a very uplifting tale. The story just kind of ends with the march of the rails across the West. Second, it is rather violent and, as I said, my tastes have changed. As I said before, it is a rather long movie, and it does get slow in some places. Still, I wanted to share some of my thoughts about it to sort of get warmed up on this blogging thing. I will retorcatively give this film four antelopes. It gets five for its amazing cinematography and characterizations, but only three for its slow pace and overly violent nature.